Ex-Gaddafi aide leaves for Doha talks

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By Laura Lynch

With the battle in Libya at a stalemate, there are fresh questions about just how the conflict in Libya will end. Now a former Gaddafi loyalist appears poised to try to meet with opposition representatives.

Former Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa has left a safe house in London for Qatar ahead of an international conference on Libya. His departure is stirring controversy and concern.

Koussa turned his back on his old friend Gaddafi in March, flew to London and submitted himself to extensive debriefings by British officials. He remained out of sight and publicly silent until Monday when he delivered a short statement on camera to the BBC, urging a peaceful resolution to the conflict he left behind.

“I ask everybody – all the parties – to work to avoid taking Libya into a civil war,” Moussa said. “This will lead to so much bloodshed and Libya will be a new Somalia.”

In Tripoli, Libyan Cabinet Minister Ibrahim Zaruf al-Sharif, downplayed the remarks. He portrayed his former colleague as a prisoner.

“I have known Moussa for a long time. He’s a personal friend of mine. But I will not comment on anything he says while he is captured and held hostage in a hostile country,” Sharif said.

But his trip to Qatar Tuesday, with the full knowledge of British officials, seems proof that Koussa is free to come and go as he pleases. That’s not welcome news for relatives of victims who believe he masterminded the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie, Scotland. The Conservative Member of Parliament for Harlow, Robert Halfon, said the government shouldn’t allow the United Kingdom to be used as a ‘transit lounge’ for alleged war criminals.

War criminals

“I believe that Mr Koussa should face either British courts or the international courts for his alleged war crimes. We cannot allow people to come in and then let them out to travel wherever they want willy nilly, especially when they are allegedly complicit in a number of war crimes against our own people,” Halfon said.

It’s expected Koussa will meet with representatives of the Libyan opposition in Qatar. Former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind said that’s reason enough to let him travel.

“It is quite likely that Koussa can make an important contribution towards getting a proper resolution of the Libyan crisis, and there cannot be a resolution of the Libyan crisis without Gaddafi going,” Rifkind said.

“So anything that contributes to Gaddafi getting off the stage, giving up power sooner rather than later, must be in everyone’s interest — including all of us who were appalled and shocked, and remain appalled and shocked, by what that man is responsible for in the past.”

Koussa’s appearance in Qatar may well be part of a delicate diplomatic effort to resolve the impasse in Libya through talks. But it won’t be easy for the opposition to welcome him to the negotiating table, much less trust the man who has sat at Gadaffi’s right hand for decades.

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